hey..... Anyone know the redline for 69 chevelle L78? the chevelle resto guide says 6500 but only lists 2 part numbers 5500 and 6500 I know of a car with a 6000 redline and it has the original dash in it.... were there 3 different clusters for these cars?

thanks
joe
70 L34
67 427

someone must know!!!!!!!

This has been an on going debate. Our COPO Chevelle came new with the 6,000 rpm redline. It was a late model car. Some restored cars have a 6500 red line. It's hard to believe a restorer would change the tach red line, but you can never be sure. Others, with original cars, claim to have the 6500 redline. When questioned for details, they take their marbles and go home. How can we ever get this sorted out without info. Unless you bought the car new, you can never be sure what restorers have done. I've seen cars done in the '80s and early '90s and many things were done incorrectly. The restorer would use the best information he had. Today we have the whole internet to bring info together. Let's do it. The small block cars got the 5000 redline while the L34 and L35 got the 5500 redline. I'm assuming the L78 and L72 got the same 6000 tach. Perhaps not. Where in the year were the 6500 rpm tach cars built and at what plant? GM has been known to do weird things just to keep us guessing....I guess.

[This message has been edited by Keith Tedford (edited 02-03-2003).]

[This message has been edited by Keith Tedford (edited 02-04-2003).]

Well, if it is in the same line as the LS-6, it had a 6500 rpm redline with the yellow caution area starting at 6.

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Craig Sanden

Distant thunder, cold as stone, a big block screams down from it's throne, one by one each car succumbs, something WICKED this way comes.

I have a 67 L78 with an nos tach and the red line is 6000.

Yes, this was a heated discussion on more than one occasion... no one has ever produced a photo of an original 6500 tach, although someone (nate?) posted pictures of 2 "restored" 6500 tachs and each had yellow lines in a different place! I wasnt sure which side i was on before that, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say i now do not believe there was ever a 6500 tach of any sort in 1969. There has been many opportunities for people who claim their existance to prove it, and no one ever did. "took their marbles and went home" indeed! http://www.chevelles.com/forum/smile.gif

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For the 1969 Chevelle.
SB = 5000 rpm redline
BB 325 and 350 hp = 5500 rpm redline
BB 375 hp = 6000 rpm redline (L78 and L89)

I am 100% sure this is correct.
Period.

Does anyone have an unmolested 427 Yenko car ? I'll bet it has a 5500 redline tach !

How about an original 427 COPO car ?


Nate

Yenko Chevelles did not have factory tach. Yenko installed the SW 970 tach.
Keith posted his one owner COPO has 6000rpm tach.

Joe58 is correct,Yenko tachs were 8000 rpm aftermarket stewart warners. if Yenko would have ordered factory tachs, I'd be taking your bet Nate, cause it wouldn't be a 5500, it would be a 6000, same as an L78, and same as Keith's COPO L-72. -JB

[This message has been edited by Joey B (edited 02-04-2003).]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by SS3964N8:


I am 100% sure this is correct.
Period.

Nate<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

not trying to be a smart "a" Nate and I have no idea one way or the other but I'm curious,
how do you know for sure ?

I, for one, am not ruling out the 6500 tach. I can't imagine changing the redline while restoring a tach on a big dollar car. There appear to be some original ones out there too with the 6500 red line. Members here have either had or seen them too. An open mind helps. What code shows up in box 67 on your build sheet?

Here we go again huh guys http://www.chevelles.com/forum/smile.gif,,,,, I have seen both,,,thats my story and Im stickin to it,,,both unrestored originals,,, I have a 6000 unrestored original in my possesion,, but have had 1 6500 unrestored original,,, can I prove it,, nope, this was long before it mattered or before anyone cared or before digital camera's, can anyone prove they didnt exsist??

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[This message has been edited by L89SEDAN (edited 02-04-2003).]

Here in Southern Ontario, all the '69 L78 and COPO cars that I have seen, came from Baltimore. Which plant did the Florida L78 cars come from? Seems to be that area where the 6500 tachs appear. There should be some pattern to all of this. Nick isn't the only one who appears to have seen these tachs. 20 years ago it was not always fun trying to explain a COPO Chevelle to the non-believers. Now everyone is an expert.

Why would a copo be any different than any other factory installed 427. All 427 L89 Corvettes and Impalas had 6000 redlines. I think they were rated 425 hp at 6400 rpm's.

OOPS L72

Well if they were out there a few years ago, they should be out there now... I just wonder why is it so easy to find an unrestored L78 or even a COPO with a 6000 redline, but impossible to find one with a 6500? I wont rule it out either, but if this thread ends again with no proof of a 6500 redline in existance, i will me even more sceptical...

Actually to be completely fair about this,, I wasnt raised here in Florida,, but in Pontiac Michigan,,3 blocks east of Woodward Ave. so we saw alotta stuff that alotta other folks didnt see,, in 69 I was just a pup actually and the car I saw it in was a 69 Chevelle SS car not a COPO car,, I remember like it was yesterday,,all the hot shots had the newer stuff,,that whipped are asses nightly and this was one of those cars,, I had a 64 Chevelle with a hopped up 327 and a saggy 4 speed http://www.chevelles.com/forum/smile.gif thought we were cool back then till Later in the evenings on Friday an Saturday nites when the big dogs came out to play http://www.chevelles.com/forum/smile.gif and this car was a player,,was a real tag not a manufactures tag (we saw lotsa those on Saturday nites) L78 4 speed car bench seat cortez with black,,set a cheater slicks on it,, and it only appeared after mid night,,for any of yall that remember or hung on woodward in the grand ole days,,, he worked at the Sunoco station with the guy that had the silver 67 Hemi GTX,,,, funny how when we age we cant remember wat we had for lunch but can remember that crap huh http://www.chevelles.com/forum/smile.gif Lotsa good times down there,, but this car had a 6500 red line RPM factory tach. I remeber disticntly,, for wat its worth Nick

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You shoulda had your digital camera with you! http://www.chevelles.com/forum/wink.gif

WELL !!!!!!! that makes it about as clear as mud for me !!!! no really, thanks for the input. we started slow on this one and it kind of launched after that.
best regards,
joe b.
70 L34
67 427

Nick.....Would that have been Jimmy Addison, the GTX that was called Silver Bullet? ....Tony

Perhaps we have this tach thing narrowed down to the Detroit area? Wasn't that silver GTX featured in a magazine or on TV in the last year?

I don't know how relevant this might be, but the existance of the ultra-rare 64/65 7000rpm tach lead credence to the fact that some odd and rare pieces did make it out the door for whacko reasons (ask me about the story if you haven't heard it). Never say never when it comes to this stuff. Does anyone have a '69 assembly manual? Does it list two, three or more part numbers for the tachometer? There might be a clue or two there.



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NCOA member #220 ACES member #1670
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Rich Cummings
Rich's 1965 Malibu SS Restoration Project Progress Page (http://www.geocities.com/ticklewiggle/)
President, Heartland Chevelle Club
http://heartland.chevelles.net

I have an assembly manual!

There are 3 different cluster assemblies listed:

6482227 = Cluster assembly (manual trans assembly without PRNDL indicator?)
6482229 = RPO M35
6482230 = RPO M38 and M40

There are 3 different tachometer assemblies listed:

6491312 = Tachometer Assembly (small block "red line" assembly?)
6491312 = RPO L34 and L35
6491314 = RPO L78

Hope this helps, but I say 6000 RPM red line was tops for '69.

Rick

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[This message has been edited by RatMotor69 (edited 02-05-2003).]

Tony I never knew the guys name,,, we were pretty much the lower class citizens down there late at nite,,, he used to hang at Teds,, Big Boy and Korvettes,, him and the guy with the 64 4 door Plymouth with the dog dish caps sportin a dual quad Hemi the 11 " slicks,, and a push button tranni,,, them big dogs pretty much kept to them selves,, we were pretty much spectators when they were around,,

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<LI> ACES Charter member # 73 <LI>TEAM CHEVELLE # GOLD # 9
<LI> /66 SS Black 138 car 4 speed / 70, LS-5 ,4 speed, A/C , Corvette Coupe
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/blewis166

What was the red line on an L88 Corvette?

This is just what I was looking for...how about this, I have a buddy that just picked up a 69 chevelle ss, tach yellows at 5800, red lines from 6000 to 7000. Has any one seen this? He is coming by sometime this week and I will take a pic and post. There is not one book out there that says anything about a tach that reads this, ideas....

Yea I was directed here coz I had the same damn question, and some guy over at Rabbits toys under Novas is making some claims about his redline on his L78 1968 Nova. My car has a 5700 maybe 5800 yellow to 6,000, and red from 6 - 7000 Balti more car.

I am supposedly picking up an original 6500 tach guage cluster from 1969 next week that I secured for an undisclosed price. We'll see if it's the real deal.

All I have every seen is 6000, but I keep seeing 6500 redline mentioned with L78 cars througout the internet under chevelle listings?????

:confused:

I smell repro voodoo working here

I now have the answer to the hotly debated redline for 69 chevelle~

A reliable source who has been rebuilding these kinds of tachs and servicing them for 26 years says the following:

In 1969 the L78 L72 motors had the 6000 redline, in 1970 they went to 6500 because they went to the dual springs instead of the single spring and dampner. It meant they could get more reliable revving. Apperently the single spring system was famous for dropping valves.

Does this sound right to you guys? It made sense to me, but interested in others opinion.

There is one exception the corvette may have used double springs on the L88 engine in 1969, but thats a corvette not a L78 1969 chevelle, which is what were talking about.

Al

In '69 the valve springs on the L78 and L72 engines were definitely too weak. Anything over 6K rpm and you were asking to eventually drop a valve. We must have had lucky horse shoes with our COPO car as it saw plenty of the 6500 shifts. The original owner of our L78 car wasn't so lucky. That car ended up with a CE replacement. A 6500 tach might have looked impressive and might have been available but wouldn't have been very sensible.

Yea thats sounds right, but really based on the above I doubt the existance of a factory installed 6500 Redline tach in Chevelles and Camaros. What about the L88 corvette motor and vavle assembly, was it stronger or the same?